Nintendo set to sell neon ‘Splatoon’ Joy-Con controllers in the US

Love the Nintendo Switch controllers but tired of only having them in gray? The company will broaden the Joy-Con color palette in the US market when it releases them in neon pink and neon green later this month. While these hues have been out in Europe and Japan for awhile, they were previously available in America only as part of a Walmart-exclusive Splatoon 2 console bundle that launched last summer.

Keep your #NintendoSwitch looking fresh when you play #Splatoon2 with these new Neon Pink and Neon Green Joy-Con controllers! Look for them in stores later this month. pic.twitter.com/NWZlMIG2q0

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) January 5, 2018

Interesting trivia, as pointed out by Polygon: The US Joy-Cons pictured above have their colors flipped compared to the international and original Splatoon 2 bundle, though that could be the result of a mirrored image. If not, then novelty may soothe the wounds of the color scheme’s delayed release in the US. Nintendo hasn’t announced how much the neon pink and green controllers will cost (a standard set is priced at $80), nor whether they’ll come in a pair as the image Nintendo tweeted suggests.

Via: Polygon

Source: Nintendo (Twitter)

Court rules Zepp has to stop selling its baseball and softball sensors

Zepp Labs’ sensors let you analyze your performance across a number of sports, including baseball, softball, golf, tennis and soccer. But some of its performance-tracking products will soon be no more. In 2015, Blast Motion, a company that makes similar products, sued Zepp for patent infringement and today the two companies announce that they’ve reached a settlement.

A US District Court has found that both companies infringed on each other’s patents and the two parties have agreed to a settlement that will allow both to keep their products on the market, save for one. Zepp’s baseball and softball sensor products will no longer be sold in the US and the court’s injunction will go into effect after June 17th of this year. The rest of the agreement has not been released.

Zepp says that it will continue to support its existing baseball and softball apps, maintaining the features they currently have, and it will still introduce new features to the Apple Watch and other wearables going forward. Blast Motion says it will soon announce measures on its part that are in support of Zepp customers.

Source: Zepp Labs, Blast Motion

Review: OWC’s ThunderBlade V4 Offers Blazing Fast External Storage for Professionals

OWC this week is announcing the newest member of its family of “extreme performance drives,” the ThunderBlade V4. The ThunderBlade V4 is an external drive targeted at professional users who need the fastest possible speeds, and it packs four M.2 solid state drive blades into a single enclosure that runs over Thunderbolt 3, with total capacities ranging from 1 TB to 8 TB. The result is what OWC says is the “fastest SSD ever made,” with read speeds topping out at 2800 MB/s and write speeds up to 2450 MB/s.

We’ve spent a bit of time with the ThunderBlade V4, and it’s definitely an impressive piece of technology, although its pricing that starts at $1200 and rises significantly from there will limit the potential market. This is an accessory for demanding professionals who need to squeeze every bit of performance out of their external drives and is undoubtedly overkill for consumers simply looking to back up their computers.

Design

The ThunderBlade V4 comes in a hefty aluminum enclosure covered in large fins to help with heat dissipation, as this drive can get fairly warm when you’re reading and writing a lot of data. There is no active cooling in the drive, which helps with the ThunderBlade V4’s ruggedness as there are no moving parts.

The ThunderBlade V4 measures just under 5 inches wide, a little over 7.5 inches deep, and just over an inch high. It weighs a little under two pounds, which gives it a solid feel and good stability on a desk. A separate power adapter also adds some bulk to deal with elsewhere.

The only feature on the front of the ThunderBlade V4 is a thin three-inch long LED that shines white when connected to power (and also when connected to a sleeping computer) and blue when the drive has an active connection to a computer. While the LED appears to be a single thin indicator, it’s actually made up of four distinct segments, one for each M.2 drive in the ThunderBlade.

Each segment will blink blue when data is being written to or read from the corresponding drive. With the speed of the drive and the four onboard SSDs, you’ll see a sort of flickering ripple effect across the LED as data is moved.

An ambient light sensor on the rear of the ThunderBlade V4 dims the front LED in dark environments.

In addition to the light sensor, the rear of the ThunderBlade includes a port for the power adapter connection and a pair of Thunderbolt 3 ports. One Thunderbolt 3 port is used to connect the ThunderBlade to your computer using the included 0.5-meter Thunderbolt 3 cable, while the second is available for daisy chaining a display or other peripherals.

The Thunderbolt 3 ports are capable of supplying 15 watts of power each, but that won’t be enough to power a MacBook Pro. This isn’t intended as a true docking station, however, so it’s not surprising that the power output is limited and primarily intended to drive downstream peripherals rather than host computers.

Speed Tests

We ran some QuickBench disk speed tests on the ThunderBlade V4, and while we didn’t quite hit OWC’s top numbers, the drive still showed some seriously fast performance. Connecting directly to a 2016 15-inch MacBook Pro, we saw read and write performance in the range of 2400 MB/s in extended testing mode with transfer sizes in the 20–100 MB range.

Similar speed tests using Blackmagic with larger transfer sizes of 5 GB yielded slightly lower speeds of over 1900 MB/s read and 2100 MB/s write, although it is difficult to directly compare the two different methodologies. Even that performance allowed the ThunderBlade to ace Blackmagic’s “Will it Work?” rating system that determines whether a drive is fast enough to handle video in various combinations of formats, resolutions, and frame rates.

Results were similar in various configurations even when other peripherals up to and including a pair of LG UltraFine 5K displays were connected to the MacBook Pro’s other Thunderbolt 3 ports.

With an LG UltraFine 5K connected to the downstream Thunderbolt 3 port on the ThunderBlade, we obviously saw lower speeds as some of the bandwidth was being dedicated to the display. Write speeds were impacted most significantly, dropping to around 800 MB/s, while read speeds dipped slightly to around 2050 MB/s.

RAID

The four SSDs inside the ThunderBlade V4 come preconfigured in RAID 0 format to offer the full stated capacity of the drive. A license for OWC’s SoftRAID XT (formerly SoftRAID Lite) is included with the ThunderBlade, and the software can be used to reformat in RAID 1 to provide mirrored redundancy.

While RAID 0 and 1 give you the option to prioritize storage capacity or data redundancy, it would be nice if some of the higher RAID modes were available on the ThunderBlade to offer more flexibility.

With the downstream Thunderbolt 3 port on the ThunderBlade V4, you can daisy chain multiple units together for even more storage, although you’re of course limited by the total bandwidth of the single Thunderbolt 3 connection they’re all running over. You can even set up two ThunderBlade V4 units as a single RAID array.

PC Compatibility

While OWC is focused on Macs and the ThunderBlade V4 comes formatted for Mac as a RAID 0 Journaled HFS+ volume, it can also be used with PCs once the drives have been reformatted and reconfigured. Unlike on Mac, however, booting from the ThunderBlade is not supported on Windows.

Pricing and Availability

As should be expected for a product with large storage capacities using the fastest SSD designs and Thunderbolt 3, the ThunderBlade V4 isn’t cheap. The 1 TB model is priced at $1199.99, with the 2 TB model at $1799.99, the 4 TB model at $2799.99, and the 8 TB model at $4999.00.

But for professional users who need the absolute fastest external storage, the ThunderBlade V4 looks like a solid option that takes maximum advantage of the bandwidth offered by Thunderbolt 3. All models come with a rugged case, a three-year warranty, and one year of complimentary Level 1 data recovery coverage. All four models will be available from OWC starting January 8.

Note: OWC provided the ThunderBlade V4 to MacRumors for the purposes of this review, and it will be returned to OWC. No other compensation was received.

Tags: OWC, ThunderBlade
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Twitter: Banning world leaders would ‘hide important information’

In a blog post today, Twitter made an attempt at clarifying its stance on how political figures and world leaders use its platform. Many have called for the site to block Donald Trump as he has repeatedly tweeted violent and threatening posts, and Twitter has often stumbled through its explanations of why it hasn’t done so. In its post today, the company says that blocking leaders or deleting their tweets would ultimately limit important conversations. “Blocking a world leader from Twitter or removing their controversial Tweets, would hide important information people should be able to see and debate,” it said. “It would also not silence that leader, but it would certainly hamper necessary discussion around their words and actions.”

In other words, it won’t be banning Trump. The president has come under fire multiple times for things he’s tweeted including violent anti-Muslim propaganda videos and threats against other countries. Color of Change just released a new petition today calling for Twitter to remove Trump’s account. Following the president’s retweeting of violent videos, Twitter initially responded to inquiries as to why those were allowed to remain up by saying some videos can if they are newsworthy or of public interest. It later changed its position, explaining that the videos didn’t violate its policy.

In today’s post, which never directly mentions Trump, Twitter also noted that it works hard “to remain unbiased with the public interest in mind,” and that “no one person’s account drives Twitter’s growth, or influences these decisions.” A comment that seems to be a response to accusations that it keeps Trump around for the clicks. “We review Tweets by leaders within the political context that defines them, and enforce our rules accordingly,” it said. “We are working to make Twitter the best place to see and freely discuss everything that matters. We believe that’s the best way to help our society make progress.”

Source: Twitter

Here’s how to take a screenshot on PS4 so you can brag to all your friends

Finally beat that insanely punishing Bloodborne boss and want to brag to your friends? Or maybe you’re just a beleaguered gaming writer on a deadline in need of image assets. Whatever the reason you might need to take a screenshot of your games on PlayStation 4, you’re in luck, because capturing and sharing your play is integral to modern gaming, with easy functionality built right into the PS4 out of the box. Here’s our quick guide on how to take a screenshot on PS4.

Taking a screenshot

Step one, actually taking a screenshot, is about as simple as it gets. To the left of the touchpad on your DualShock controller is a “Share” button, which you can use to capture images and video at any time whether you’re in a game or navigating the menus. Hold the Share button to capture and save a screenshot of whatever was on your screen at the moment you pressed the button. Alternatively, if you press and immediately release the Share button, you will pause the action and bring up the Share menu. From there, you can press triangle to save a screenshot or select “share screenshot” (highlighted below) to send your image directly to your PSN activity feed and social media.

Sharing a screenshot

To share an image immediately from the game, press the Share button once to pause and bring up the overlay. Select the Screenshot option and press “X” to be given a choice of channels through which you can share your content.

The first time you share a screenshot through an external social network like Facebook or Twitter you will have to enter your login credentials. Otherwise, you are ready to share at will in PlayStation’s own Activities feed, in direct messages to your friends, or to any Communities of which you are already a member.

Saving a screenshot

Alternatively, if you want to share screenshots after the fact, you can do so from Capture Gallery, which can be reached at any time by pressing the PS button and navigating through the home screen menu.

Your media is automatically sorted into screenshots and videos, and within that in folders by game. Find the screenshot you want to share and press the Share button, which will bring up the same options as before for available channels.

Exporting to a USB device

If you just want the native image files as JPGs, you can plug in a USB storage device and directly export them. Note that only exFAT and FAT32 formatted devices are compatible with the PS4. With your device plugged in, navigate to the Capture Gallery from the home menu. Find the content you want to share and press the Options button, this will bring up a menu on the right side of the screen which includes “Copy to USB Storage Device.” Highlight this and press X, which will give you an opportunity to select as many screenshots as you would like to export in bulk to the device you have plugged in. The export process is quick, and your content will be filed in the drive under the folders PS4>SHARE>Screenshots, and then again sorted by games.

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LG Tribute Dynasty budget smartphone hits Boost Mobile, coming soon to Sprint

Just days before the start of CES 2018, LG has released the LG Tribute Dynasty, a low-cost smartphone that boasts a couple of nice features.

LG’s newest budget phone packs 1.5GHz Octa-Core MediaTek processor and 2GB of RAM. That’s pretty standard fare for a budget phone, but it should allow you to browse the web and do other tasks without too much trouble.

The LG Tribute Dynasty features a five-inch IPS screen with 780p resolution. With a pixel density of 196 ppi, the screen compares with similar budget smartphones like the ZTE Blade Vantage.

Internal memory is a bit of a disappointment at 16GB . While the memory can be expanded to 32GB with a MicroSD card, it would have been nice to see the phone at least offer 32GB of onboard storage like the similarly priced ZTE Blade Z Max.

A 2,500 mAh battery will give you about 15 hours of talk time on the LG Tribute Dynasty. Again, that’s pretty comparable to other budget smartphones. The fact that the battery is removable is a nice touch.

The rear-facing camera on the Tribute Dynasty comes in at 8MP, while the front-facing camera is 5MP. While both the cameras should work fine in good lighting, we expect them to be on par with other budget smartphones in the same price range.  The camera software does pack some nice features, including face detection and a beautification filter.

In addition to the stock photo software you’ll find on any Android, LG added video-editing software. The Quick video editor app allows you to create and edit HD movies, including soundtracks and text, as well as add effects to your video.

The phone runs on Android 71. Nougat. We’ve reached out to LG to ask if it will push Android 8.0 Oreo to the phone in the future,. We’re awaiting a response, but with its specs and price point, we wouldn’t bet on it.

The LG Tribute Dynasty is available now on Boost Mobile and will set you back about $100, though Boost is offering a limited-time $40 discount to current customers New customers can get the phone for $10 if they port their number to Boost. Sprint users will be able to pick up the LG Tribute Dynasty beginning on January 12.

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Get your phone juiced up quickly with Belkin’s new wireless charging stations

A bevy of new wireless charging options will be unveiled at CES, courtesy of Belkin. The company announced it will update its line of wireless charging pads, as well as introduce a commercial charging solution. Two quick-charging wall adapters and a battery back up are also coming soon.

First up is Boost Up, Belkin’s updated line of wireless charging pads. The collection includes a single and dual charging pads, a car-mounted charging pad, and a wireless charging stand.

While charging pads have become pretty standard fare, the Boost Up pads have a few nice features. Belkin is offering many of the pads in several different colors so it is easy to select one that matches your phone or decor. The company also opted to make the pads 10 watts this year, doubling the wattage of last year’s Boost Up Charging Pad.

Of the Belkin wireless chargers announced at CES, we are most excited about the Boost Up Wireless Charging Stand. The stand allows you to charge your phone both vertically and horizontally. At first pass, this may not sound that exciting, but being able to charge your phone while watching Netflix is a definite win for us.

The Boost Up Wireless Charging Stand is somewhat similar to Samsung’s Wireless Charging Convertible with a few improvements. First, Belkin’s charging stand offers an extra watt of charging power; that extra watt won’t make difference for iPhone users, however, since the phones can only accept 7.5 watts of power via a wireless charging pad. The other major difference has to do with its design. With two legs to rest your phone on, the Boost Up Wireless Charge Stand seems a little more stable.

Belkin also announced a commercial wireless charging solution, called Boost Up Wireless Charging System. The system is similar to Powermat and other commercial charging pads that are becoming an ever-present feature in cafes and conference rooms.

In addition to its new line of wireless charging pads, Belkin also introduced a new portable charger called the Pocket Power USB-C 10K. The charger is compatible with Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0, so it only takes about 35 minutes to charge your battery up to 80 percent. It’s also thin enough to easily slide into your pocket.

Two fast-charging wall adapters round out Belkin’s announcement. The Home Charger 27W and Dual Port Home Charger 27W + USB-C to USB-A Cable offers high-speed charging through USB Power Delivery. It’s an excellent alternative to using a MacBook charger and adapter workaround that many people are using to quickly charge their iPhones.

Belkin plans to start selling its charging solutions in the spring and summer, and will announce pricing in the coming months.

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Alcatel Idol 5 vs. Lenovo Moto G5S Plus: Clash of the budget smartphones

The budget phone market is seriously heating up, and while there was once a time when buying a budget phone meant settling for something that could barely handle Facebook, these days most budget handsets are capable of almost all day-to-day tasks and may even have a decent camera. We’ve reviewed dozens of budget phones in the past few years, but there’s one lineup that seems to stand above the rest — the Moto G series, and most recently, the Lenovo Moto G5S Plus.

Of course, it’s not the only budget handset worth looking at. Another great device is the new Alcatel Idol 5, which, unlike naming conventions suggest, was launched at the same time as the Idol 5S. But which is better: The Moto G5S Plus or the Idol 5? We put the two handsets head to head to find out.

Specs

Alcatel Idol 5

Lenovo Moto G5S Plus

Size
148 x 73 x 7.5mm (5.83 x 2.87 x 0.30-inches)
153.5 x 76.2 x 8mm (6.04 x 3.00 x 0.31-inches)
Weight
5.47oz (155g)
5.93oz (168g)
Screen
5.2-inch LCD
5.5-inch LCD
Resolution
1080 x 1920 (423ppi)
1080 x 1920 (401ppi)
OS
Android 7.1
Android 7.1
Storage
16GB
32GB, 64GB
MicroSD card slot
Yes, up to 256GB
Yes, up to 256GB
NFC support
No
Yes
Processor
MediaTek MT6753
Qualcomm Snapdragon 625
RAM
3GB
3GB, 4GB
Connectivity
GSM/HSPA/LTE
GSM/CDMA/HSPA/EVDO/LTE
Camera
13MP rear, 5MP front
Dual 13MP rear, 8MP front
Video
1,080p
2,160p
Bluetooth
Yes, version 4.2
Yes, version 4.2
Fingerprint sensor
Yes
Yes
Other sensors
Accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity, compass
Accelerometer, gyro, proximity
Water resistant
No
No
Battery
2,800mAh
3,000mAh
Ports
Micro USB
Micro USB
Marketplace
Google Play
Google Play
Color offerings
Metal Silver, Metal Black
Lunar Grey, Fine Gold
Availability

Cricket Wireless Amazon

Amazon
Price
$180
$240
DT review
3 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5 stars

These two phones may both be considered budget handsets, but they offer slightly different specs. That makes sense considering the slight price difference.

For starters, the two phones boast different processors. The Alcatel Idol 5 offers the MediaTek MT6753 chipset, while Lenovo has stuck with Qualcomm to offer the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625. Along with those processors, both phones offer 3GB of RAM in the base model, though the Moto G5S Plus offers 4GB of RAM for those that want it, as well as extra storage. So how does that translate into performance? Well, the phones performed more or less the same in our tests. On AnTuTu the 4GB RAM model of the Moto G5S Plus scored 63,802, while the Alcatel Idol 5 scored 62,869. The G5 Plus also performed better in Geekbench 4, making it the slightly more powerful option.

There’s also storage to take into consideration, and that could be a big point of difference here. The Alcatel Idol 5 only has 16GB of storage — while the Moto G5S Plus offers 32GB in the base model, and 64GB for those willing to spend a bit of extra.

Considering the fact that the Moto G5S Plus is slightly faster and has more storage, it’s the winner here.

Winner: Lenovo Moto G5S Plus

Design, display, and durability

Christian de Looper/Digital Trends

Budget phones don’t generally offer cutting-edge designs, and these two devices are no exception to that. That’s not to say they look bad — just that they’re a little basic. The Moto G5S Plus looks pretty much exactly the same as its predecessor, the Moto G5 Plus. It still has a Micro USB port rather than a USB-C port, which is a little frustrating, and on the back you’ll find that signature large camera modular characteristic of Moto phones these days. That makes sense considering the phone now has a dual-lens camera, but we’ll go into that in the camera section.

The Alcatel Idol 5 is a little more unique in its design, and we appreciated that. There are dual front-facing speakers located in small metal protrusions on the top and bottom of the phone, and the back features a nice minimal look. Overall, we think it’s the better-designed phone of the two.

The display, on the other hand, is a bit tough to judge. Both phones feature LCD displays with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels. The difference between them, however, is that the display in the Moto G5S Plus sits in at 5.5-inches, while the Idol 5’s display is 5.2-inches. With a smaller display, however, Alcatel is able to achieve a slightly higher pixel-density. We don’t really think that slight change in pixel-density will be noticeable here — so we prefer the larger size of the display in the Moto G5S Plus.

Neither of the two phones offer any special features when it comes to durability. They’re not waterproof at all, so keep them away from pools and the bath. Both phones feature heavy use of metal in their build, so you’d expect them to survive small drops and bumps.

The Moto G5S Plus features the slightly larger display, while the Idol 5 combats that with a better design. This one’s a tie.

Winner: Tie

Battery life and charging

Christian de Looper/Digital Trends

The Lenovo Moto G5S Plus and Alcatel Idol 5 offer very similar battery sizes, though the Moto has the slight edge. While the Alcatel Idol 5 offers a 2,800mAh battery, the battery in the Moto G5S Plus sits in at 3,000mAh. In the real world we found that extra capacity does translate to better battery life, so you can expect the Moto G5S Plus to keep ticking for longer.

Both of the phones are compatible with slightly different versions of fast charging. The Lenovo Moto G5S Plus boasts compatibility with Lenovo’s TurboPower technology that will get you six hours of use in 15 minutes of charging, while the Alcatel Idol 5 is compatible with fast charging tech that Alcatel says will fully charge the phone in 100 minutes.

If battery life is a big bugbear for you, then the Moto G5S Plus will serve you better.

Winner: Lenovo Moto G5S Plus

Camera

Christian de Looper/Digital Trends

The cameras on these two phones are pretty different. While the Lenovo Moto G5S Plus offers a new dual-sensor camera, the Alcatel Idol 5 sticks with a single-sensor camera. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. We found that the Moto G5S Plus was very capable when taking standard photos, but using the second lens yielded very mixed and often poor results. The Idol 5, on the other hand, produced vivid and bright shots in good lighting, though it didn’t offer any extra tricks with its single-lens.

When it comes to specs, both phones offer 13 megapixel rear-facing camera, and they both have an aperture of f/2.0. That means neither of the two is likely to do all that well in low-light tests. The front-facing camera on the Moto G5S Plus offers an 8 megapixel sensor, while the sensor on the Alcatel Idol 5 sits in at 5 megapixels.

This one’s a little tough to judge. On the one hand, the Moto G5S Plus has more tricks and its standard photos are fine too. The Alcatel Idol 5, however, takes better standard photos, and does away with the tricks. We think that companies should start with a camera that shoots great photos, then add features from there — so we’re awarding this one to the Alcatel Idol 5.

Winner: Alcatel Idol 5

Software

Christian de Looper/Digital Trends

Both of these devices are Android phones, and they both ship with Android 7.1 Nougat. Neither phone ventures too far from stock Android, but we prefer the extras offered in the Moto app on the G5S Plus to the bloatware on the Idol 5. Both of them will get an upgrade to Android Oreo, but we imagine that Lenovo will support updates on the Moto G5S Plus longer than Alcatel will support them on the Idol 5. Lenovo isn’t perfect with updates, but it has been pretty consistent in getting them out to aging phones eventually.

That’s important for security too. Lenovo is likely to be better at pushing security updates out to the Moto G5S Plus, keeping the phone nice and secure. We’re awarding this one to the Moto G5S Plus for that reason.

Winner: Lenovo Moto G5S Plus

Price and availability

The Lenovo Moto G5S Plus and Alcatel Idol 5 have been pretty head-to-head so far — but they’re actually slightly different when it comes to pricing. While the Moto G5S Plus starts at $240 for the 32GB/3GB version, or $300 for the 64GB/4GB version, the Alcatel Idol 5 comes in at only $180. That’s a pretty great price, but there is a catch — you can only get it from Cricket Wireless if you’re in the U.S. The Moto G5S Plus is available from Amazon, Best Buy, and so on.

In other words, the Alcatel Idol 5 is cheaper, but it’s less available. Still, the big price difference is enough to make it the winner here.

Winner: Alcatel Idol 5

Overall winner: Lenovo Moto G5S Plus

Both of these phones are great, but they’re great for different reasons. The Moto G5S Plus offers more storage, better battery life, a bigger screen, and will likely get updates quicker and for longer, but the Alcatel Idol 5 is cheaper and has a better camera for most situations. So which should you buy? If you’re simply looking for a device to handle day-to-day tasks, capture a few shots every now and then, and you don’t mind switching to Cricket Wireless, then go for the Alcatel Idol 5 and save a few bucks. Everyone else should choose the Moto G5S Plus.

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You make 35,000 decisions a day, and Huawei wants AI to help out

Imagine an artificially-intelligent smartphone so clever that when we point the camera at a beautiful scene, it will guide us to the best spot to snap a picture, ensuring the lighting, composition, and colors are all perfect. It’s a feature that in theory is not too far away.

You’ll take an amazing picture, but it will likely be exactly the same as photos taken by every other person who stood there and asked their phone to do the same thing. The AI effectively turned us into automatons, sharing beautiful-but-identical cookie-cutter photos. Terrifying, right? Everybody panic! AI is a threat to our creativity and freedom of thought.

Don’t worry, this nightmare scenario is nonsense, and a great example of how artificial intelligence and its benefits are still misunderstood. At a recent event in London, Huawei gathered together experts on AI and human behavior to put our minds at rest about how the technology will help free us from mundane decisions, and actually encourage creativity further.

35,000 decisions a day

Huawei has a vested interest in making us understand the benefits of AI. Apart from what’s coming in the near future, AI is already a major part of the Huawei Mate 10 Pro smartphone, including the camera. Inside, the Neural Processing Unit (NPU) recognizes the environment — a sunny day, for example — and adjusts the camera’s settings accordingly. AI potentially guiding us to take the most aesthetically-pleasing photo would be an extension of this. Rather than halt our creativity, Huawei said it’s at this time our own creative ability would come into play, giving the resulting picture our own personal spin.

This is based on how AI will free our minds from mundane decisions, or from decisions we’re not equipped to make, and open us up to concentrate on what’s important to us at that time. Except, how many decisions do we make each day that AI could possibly help out with? Some guess a number in the hundreds, or perhaps the low thousands. Research from Huawei puts it at an astonishing 35,000 a day.

How many decisions do we make each day, that AI could help out with?

Most of these are unconscious decisions. We’re actually only aware of around one percent of them, and it’s the dull unconscious ones that AI can help out with. Huawei’s Global Brand Management Director David-Dohyung Kim gave Digital Trends an example.

“We make most of those unconscious decisions automatically,” Kim said. “Think of it like this: When you cross the road, you look to the right. We don’t think, we just do it. This is great at home, but potentially very dangerous if you’re visiting somewhere that drives on the opposite side of the road. That’s where artificial intelligence comes in. AI thinks, when our minds are being lazy.”

Unlock potential

By using its sensors and data, Kim explained, the NPU can make the jump from collecting and analyzing data, to eventually intelligently using that data to help us make decisions.

“AI needs to make our lives easier,” Huawei’s Chief Marketing Officer, Andrew Garrihy, added.  “We can forget things, because AI will remember for us, and then go on to make an even better decision when it does. It could unlock human potential.”

Behavioral science professor Paul Dolan gave some insight into how AI will complement our brains, and help us achieve that potential.

“The best way to make a decision is to do something else,” he said. “Your unconscious mind works in the background, and comes up with a solution. That’s what AI will do. AI is a copilot, it can make us aware of the decisions we’re making, and learn to make them better. Brains want to make life easy, and taking a break lets it wander.”

He provided a sports analogy to help understand further.

“We don’t think about many actions, in the same way a golfer doesn’t want to think about the unconscious part of hitting a golf ball,” he said. “When they do, that’s when it goes wrong.”

Implemented correctly, AI will take the pressure off the mind and a portion of its 35,000 daily decisions, so you’re hitting that golf ball more consistently, more often.

The concept of AI unlocking potential is a popular outlook, and it’s shared by many other major companies contemplating artificial intelligence, including Accenture, IBM, and UBS. But surely to unlock any potential, it means handing over a degree of control to an AI system, and isn’t that worrying?

Ask questions

Garrihy said AI “should be liberating, not frightening. Anything that frees us up to enjoy life more should be enticing.”

But AI’s capabilities will come from giving the technology control — the negative sides are associated with horror scenarios from movies like “The Terminator,” and people are concerned.  Tabitha Goldstaub, founder of AI market intelligence company CognitionX, has a clear idea of what needs to be done to keep AI in check.

“[AI] should be liberating, not frightening.”

“We need to ask questions,” Goldstaub said. “We should ask why it does things. That way, we hold companies and the AI accountable. We need the benefits it provides to be clearer, because AI needs to be trusted.”

She also warned against being scared of the technology. “We need to avoid the horrors of the [genetically-modified] crops, where the public becomes too fearful of technology, and innovation slows down.”

Huawei believes AI will become mainstream, in terms of mass awareness, during 2018. It has been driving discussion about using AI for some time. We recently talked to Huawei’s COO Wan Biao, who discussed what he called the “Know Me” stage of mobile artificial intelligence, where devices proactively understand our requirements. This is very much a stage in the process Huawei envisages here, where AI makes decisions simpler and easier.

At the moment, Huawei’s NPU, crucial for fast mobile AI functionality, is only found inside the Mate 10 Pro, an expensive flagship smartphone. For AI to work in the way Huawei plans, it needs to be in more devices. Garrihy said to “watch this space for more NPU devices, as the tech gets cheaper.” Huawei sub-brand Honor is also working towards the same goal, and has already announced the Honor View 10, a Kirin 970 and NPU-equipped phone available for a lower price.

Artificial intelligence that works with us and helps us make better unconscious decisions frees us up to do more of what we like. That’s exciting, and it’s a real-world benefit we can all appreciate. It’s much nicer than thinking AI is only interested in turning us into automatons or blowing up the planet.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Huawei Mate 10 Pro review
• Honor View 10: Everything you need to know
• Truly creative A.I. is just around the corner. Here’s why that’s a big deal
• Huawei P20 teased as company’s 2018 device plans are laid bare
• Huawei Mate 10 vs. Mate 10 Pro: Battle to be your new best mate

Twitter tease indicates HTC could reveal a 4K Vive VR headset at CES

What’s this? HTC is now teasing a New Year’s “resolution” on the official HTC Vive Twitter account just days before the company’s press conference on Monday, January 8. The teaser indicates that HTC may release an updated version of the Vive this year supporting 4K visuals, a significant boost from the 2,160 x 1,200 total resolution (2x 1,080 x 1,200) used in the current model.

Rumors of a 4K version of the HTC Vive isn’t anything new. Speculation once pointed to CES 2017 as the launch platform for the so-called Vive 2 sporting a 4K display and wireless connectivity. But HTC shot down that specific rumor just days prior to the show, stating that the company remained focused on expanding the ecosystem of the current headset. After all, the Vive was only eight months old at the time, thus releasing an updated version would be financial suicide.

At the time of its release, the HTC Vive, its two controllers, two base stations, and various accessories cost a hefty $799. Now that same kit costs $599 around 21 months later, thus HTC may very well be in a good position to launch a 4K model two years after the original Vive’s release. Even more, reducing the cost of the original Vive even further while selling the 4K model at $799 wouldn’t be a surprising move.

What is concerning is the hardware needed to run a 4K-based VR headset. For the current model, you need a PC that can handle rendering two screens with 1,080 x 1,200 resolutions each running at 90Hz. Here’s what you need at the very minimum to run that experience:

Processor:
Intel Core i5-4590 or better (2013)
AMD FX 8350 or better (2012)
Graphics:
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 or better
AMD Radeon RX 480 or better
Memory:
4GB or more
Open video port:
1x HDMI 1.4 or newer, or
1x Display 1.2 or newer
Open USB ports:
1x USB-A 2.0 or newer
Operating system:
Windows 7 SP1
Windows 8.1
Windows 10

As the specifications show, the processors can date back a few years, and the memory requirement is what you typically find in any modern desktop or laptop. But most of the muscle needed to render VR relies on the graphics card requirement, which isn’t exactly at the bottom of the barrel for either Nvidia or AMD. Again, that list is for the current Vive model, and will only increase in cost as the resulting resolution increases in size.

That said, if the updated HTC Vive will support 4K visuals, you may see a combined resolution of 3,840 x 2,133, or two screens running at 1,920 x 2,133 at 90Hz. To support these resolutions without dropping frames and producing buckets of vomit, the minimum hardware requirements will need to be higher on the processor and graphics front, at the very least. The GeForce GTX 1070 might handle the load, but we could see the GTX 1080 serving as the official minimum GPU requirement.

This is all speculation, of course. We managed to run the Vive using an old GeForce GTX 960 card with decent results. But no matter how you look at the tease, 4K VR experiences won’t come cheap.

Editors’ Recommendations

• You can’t beat HTC’s new bundle packing Vive, the GTX 1070, and ‘Fallout 4 VR’
• Screenshots don’t quite do VR justice, but here’s how to do it on the HTC Vive
• HTC’s stand-alone Vive Focus killed off its Daydream headset in the U.S.
• Make VR wire-free! HTC Vive Focus joins the stand-alone party
• HTC Vive Tracker Review